Mapp & Lucia (1985 TV series)

Mapp & Lucia
Complete series DVD cover
GenreComedy-drama
Based onMapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
Written byGerald Savory
Directed byDonald McWhinnie
StarringGeraldine McEwan
Prunella Scales
Nigel Hawthorne
Denis Lill
Irene Handl
Theme music composerJim Parker
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2
No. of episodes10
Production
Executive producerNick Elliott
ProducerMichael Dunlop
Running time48−51 minutes
Production companyLWT
Original release
NetworkChannel 4
Release14 April 1985 (1985-04-14) 
31 May 1986 (1986-05-31)

Mapp & Lucia is a British television series, set in the fictional Sussex coastal town of Tilling and based on three 1930s novels by E. F. Benson, beginning with Mapp and Lucia. It was produced by London Weekend Television, filmed in Rye (on which Benson based Tilling) and neighbouring Winchelsea in the 1980s, and starred Prunella Scales as Mapp, Geraldine McEwan as Lucia, Nigel Hawthorne as Georgie, and Denis Lill as Major Benjy. The script was by Gerald Savory. There were ten episodes, (which aired in two series of five) broadcast on Channel 4 in 1985 and 1986. The opening title painting was painted by the artist Reg Cartwright. These have been repeated over the years, and a new BBC adaptation, Mapp & Lucia, aired in 2014.

Series one is a five-episode adaptation of Mapp and Lucia (1931). Season two adapts both the fifth book (Lucia's Progress, 1935) in the first three episodes, and the sixth book (Trouble for Lucia, 1939) in the final two episodes.